Tactics Under Maresca

[Foxontherocks]

I posted this in the post match thread but probably fits better here.

 

 

 

With the central midfield being so depleted/ineffective recently it's ruined any variation in the attack. In the last 5/6 games once the wingers have been sussed out it stifles everything and the attack breaks down. The games where we've come out and scored 2/3 goals in 10 mins, killing the game, have come from rapid change in where the attack is channeled through. Usually changing from the wings to quick passing and movement through the centre.

 

 

 

Silver lining of Ndidi being back might help us unlock that option through the centre again.

Edited 5 March by Foxontherocks
Typos

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

For a manger whose all in on wanting to ‘control games’, I never feel fully comfortable we’re in control and will see it out  

[Kierzz]

17 minutes ago, mod hero said:

The way I interpreted it was, they were pressing leaving holes everywhere. After the goal they sat off and packed the middle similar to QPR and we just didn’t know what to do. 
The most concerning thing (again) when they made a couple of changes they game really swung in their favour and Enzo didn’t react.

 

that was a real tough watch 

They weren't as deep as QPR, especially towards the end - they played a lot higher and pressed us relentlessly in midfield. Winks was completely overrun at times and was caught about three times in possession which is very rare for him.

 

The back three on today weren't able to break the defensive lines with their passes like Vestergaard normally does which showed and put more pressure on Winks. 

[mod hero]

5 minutes ago, sm1 said:

 

Just to add that when Enzo does put subs on, we invariably look much worse. Today we were terrible, but when he put Nacho and JJ on, we looked even worse. I remember early in the season when he took Mavidi off and moved KDH to LW, it was a disastrous move. I cant remember Enzo ever using his tactical nous and putting subs on, which swung the game in our favour. 

Yep, that is absolutely correct. I dread the hour mark in our games when things start to change. 
Enzo’s done an amazing job for us after all the turmoil last year but looks like he has some serious short comings. That said he’s only in his first full season in management.

 

I am worried about how we’d do in the prem like this though. I really can’t see anything other than getting pumped every week unless we get a major upgrade in playing staff…. Which seems unlikely with our finances.

[mod hero]

1 minute ago, Kierzz said:

They weren't as deep as QPR, especially towards the end - they played a lot higher and pressed us relentlessly in midfield. Winks was completely overrun at times and was caught about three times in possession which is very rare for him.

 

The back three on today weren't able to break the defensive lines with their passes like Vestergaard normally does which showed and put more pressure on Winks. 

Yep agreed, it seems packing the centre of the pitch against us works. 
we won the league like that in 2016. 

[Kp1984]

What has cannon done to be dropped from the squad or has he got an injury? He literally came in scored 3 with and assist or 2 in his short spell in the team then Daka comes back and cannon was dumped all together it’s so odd 

[Larry_LCFC]

Probably get some stick for this but I think he is actually quite a poor manager. Massively overrated for the job he is doing. I'm not calling for him to be sacked before anyone goes off on one and I accept he is at the start of his managerial career, but **** me his football is dire. Is he really doing any better than Rodgers would be doing in the Championship with the team that we have? Not convinced he is. 

His ability to change tactics mid game is non existent and he literally rinses the same mistakes over and over again. Subs are questionable and often too late and he seriously struggles to get the players fired up. I don't really understand how we are still top to be quite honest because Ipswich and Leeds play far, far better football than we do. Every game is a struggle to the death with our slow, lethargic style playing right into the hands of the opposition. The goals that were coming from quality individuals have dropped off and now we are knackered. 

Wouldn't survive in the Prem, simple as.

[Scotch]

Does anyone else feel like a straight 442 would be a very good plan B with the squad we have? 

 

A strike partnership picked from Cannon/Daka/Vardy and Nacho could be lethal. 

A CM duo from 2 of KDH/Winks/Ndidi and Hamza could work with them sitting a little deeper and playing forward passes to our strikers and wingers.

We could definately get a strong CB pair from Vesty/Cody/Nelson/Faes or Doyle.

Our starting wingers are both good enough defensively as well as going forward. Plus Albrighton. 

 

Our only limitations would be at FB with only two really good options but as far as plan B's go... thats all we would need for a fast, attacking alternative to what we have been doing. 

[lee7]

1 hour ago, Larry_LCFC said:

Probably get some stick for this but I think he is actually quite a poor manager. Massively overrated for the job he is doing. I'm not calling for him to be sacked before anyone goes off on one and I accept he is at the start of his managerial career, but **** me his football is dire. Is he really doing any better than Rodgers would be doing in the Championship with the team that we have? Not convinced he is. 

His ability to change tactics mid game is non existent and he literally rinses the same mistakes over and over again. Subs are questionable and often too late and he seriously struggles to get the players fired up. I don't really understand how we are still top to be quite honest because Ipswich and Leeds play far, far better football than we do. Every game is a struggle to the death with our slow, lethargic style playing right into the hands of the opposition. The goals that were coming from quality individuals have dropped off and now we are knackered. 

Wouldn't survive in the Prem, simple as.

The one thing that really baffles me currently (aside from looking like we don't want to score once we take a lead) is why we fail to speed up our passing once we have beaten the oppositions press. 

 

I completely understand trying to dominate possession but as you say our lethargic style is playing right into our opponents hands at the moment. 

We are beating the press and then playing the ball back to Coady/Faes/Hermansen just to do it all again. 

[Ian Nacho]

That second half was scary how little control we had.

 

It was the first time I had got frustrated with the system. I fully get the whole we don't want it turning it into a basketball match mantra, however, we weren't getting anything in that second half and something as simple as the goalkeeper throwing it out quick to start a counter attack would alleviate a lot of pressure. Sides know that they commit bodies forwards as they know that if they can quickly get back into some form of shape that we won't even attempt to punish them for it. 

 

 

[Dan LCFC]

His lack of ruthless streak is going to be his undoing if he isn't careful. We got away with that big time and that's against a side in dire form who looked every bit worth five losses in a row. It was basically Sheffield Wednesday again without the equaliser.

 

Are we just shattered or what?

[JJD_LCFC]

3 hours ago, Larry_LCFC said:

Probably get some stick for this but I think he is actually quite a poor manager. Massively overrated for the job he is doing. I'm not calling for him to be sacked before anyone goes off on one and I accept he is at the start of his managerial career, but **** me his football is dire. Is he really doing any better than Rodgers would be doing in the Championship with the team that we have? Not convinced he is. 

His ability to change tactics mid game is non existent and he literally rinses the same mistakes over and over again. Subs are questionable and often too late and he seriously struggles to get the players fired up. I don't really understand how we are still top to be quite honest because Ipswich and Leeds play far, far better football than we do. Every game is a struggle to the death with our slow, lethargic style playing right into the hands of the opposition. The goals that were coming from quality individuals have dropped off and now we are knackered. 

Wouldn't survive in the Prem, simple as.

I do not think your post deserves any stick. Fairly accurate reflection on the current state of our team.

 

The only area I slightly disagree is where you mentioned Leeds and Ipswich play far better football than us. Maybe they are more entertaining, and definitely we can be rather boring. Personally, I think we were better than Leeds certainly in the away game for 75 minutes. And in both Ipswich games I thought we did well, again until the latter stages of the game. At the moment we do have the best goal difference in the league, which looks a lot closer than it did at the start of February.  

 

I think Enzo is a good coach, but not the same level as a manager during games. His subs are really poor and pretty much planned pre game, decisions are always like for like. We have lost so many points from winning positions. I was sure Enzo said he plays this style of football so the opposition tire at the end of the game and that is when we take advantage. The season started that way but we have got worse and actually we are the ones who are tired at the end of games. 

He is a modern coach who has a philosophy of how he wants to play and he will not change from that. I personally think philosophy is another way to describe failure but that is just my opinion. I really worry that in a majority of our games we concede clear chances, look jaded last 20 minutes and as you correctly mentioned his subs are very questionable. I do agree that this current set up would not survive in the premier league. 

 

There is never a plan B, or even know how of how to see games out. Once or twice I accept a late goal against, but this has happened so often that it implies nothing changes in game to improve our chances of getting a result. 

[iancognito]

5 hours ago, Kp1984 said:

What has cannon done to be dropped from the squad or has he got an injury? He literally came in scored 3 with and assist or 2 in his short spell in the team then Daka comes back and cannon was dumped all together it’s so odd 

Maresca was asked this by RL and he said it's as simple as having 4 strikers in the squad and one striker on the pitch. He can't play all of them. Sometimes it's Nacho out, sometimes Daka, sometimes Cannon.

I agree though and playing him out wide as a sub or in behind another striker is wasting him too. He needs to be the one starting and then be subbed if necessary late on. 15 mins here and there won't help us or develop him.

[LCFCJohn]

7 hours ago, Mr Weller 2 said:

Which we did.

Wow a whole once compared to how many times we haven’t? If you think last night was justification for sitting on 1-0 leads I can’t help you 

 

It was down to Sunderland being dire. Maybe a handful of teams in the league we’d have held out against and they were one of them. Most would have forced a result by sheer grit even if low on quality.

 

That game just looked like a match up between 2 basement dwelling sides. There was probably more quality in the genuine basement battle between Rotherham and Wednesday last weekend!

[Rossiter]

I think some are being a bit harsh. At the moment the players are going to be a bit nervous due to the last few games, the chasing pack and the prize of promotion.  They're human. Imo that makes playing really well and being relaxed difficult. The championship is tough. Lots of teams have got play off/survival targets. We didn't play great in the second half but I think Sunderland deserve some credit as they worked hard in that half. We are a relatively inexperienced team with a fair few youngsters. I caught the end of the Ipswich game and the commentator said that Ipswich hadn't played great but they got the job done obviously. 

[Gazza M]

Should have been comfortable after an electric start. Just kill the game off Enzo. We can muck about when 4-0 up in the last 10 mins. Not sure what the pen appeal looked like close up but could have been another late disaster. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

2nd half was pretty ugly last night but I actually found that quite pleasing, as it showed we can win scrappy and be dogged when required. 
 

we cannot expect the team to go and play high intensity week in week out especially when we have limited options in a couple of key positions, it does feel like we are trying to manage player workloads and protect some key players which has definitely impacted performance levels in recent weeks. 
 

far from perfect at the moment but results are most important and what is pleasing is we have won 2 tricky away games 1-0 and shown a fair level of resilience, hopefully we can build on this and go on another winning streak which should see hopefully see us over the line 

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

7 hours ago, MGLCFC said:

Amazing reaction on here again - there are 23 teams in this league that would be delighted to swap places with us.

The important thing is though none of us gives a monkey's about the 23 other clubs. We rightly focus on our club and we are making hard work of things with the tactics arguably a major part of that. 

[MGLCFC]

1 hour ago, Cadno'r Cymoedd said:

The important thing is though none of us gives a monkey's about the 23 other clubs. We rightly focus on our club and we are making hard work of things with the tactics arguably a major part of that. 

I don't necessarily see the tactics as an issue. Apart from QPR at home, the games we've lost have been through the personnel on the field not taking gilt edge chances, not the lack of chances being created. For me the manager has, in the main got the tactics right, it's the implementation of these that has been the issue.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

Just now, MGLCFC said:

I don't necessarily see the tactics as an issue. Apart from QPR at home, the games we've lost have been through the personnel on the field not taking gilt edge chances, not the lack of chances being created. For me the manager has, in the main got the tactics right, it's the implementation of these that has been the issue.

Honest question. Who's responsible for this seeming unwillingness to kill off games and try to defend slender leads which invites pressure onto us? 

[MGLCFC]

Just now, Cadno'r Cymoedd said:

Honest question. Who's responsible for this seeming unwillingness to kill off games and try to defend slender leads which invites pressure onto us? 

I accept that we are not good at killing off games and that we seem to have a frail mentality when put under pressure, but an honest question for you, is it Enzo's fault that the numerous guilt edge chances we create in games are not put away. We should have been 3 or 4 up last night in the first 15 minutes, the same at Leeds away, Hull at home, Boro home and away. If we take half our chances, the panic would not need to arise.

[lcfc sheff]

We should be killing games off within the first 20 mins with some of the chance we create. That’s nothing to do with the manager or his tactics; that simply comes down to the players not either being in form or simply being average finishers.

[Blarmy]

5 minutes ago, MGLCFC said:

I accept that we are not good at killing off games and that we seem to have a frail mentality when put under pressure, but an honest question for you, is it Enzo's fault that the numerous guilt edge chances we create in games are not put away. We should have been 3 or 4 up last night in the first 15 minutes, the same at Leeds away, Hull at home, Boro home and away. If we take half our chances, the panic would not need to arise.

The thing is, if we took our early chances, would we sit back after the first of them, and therefore not get the other chances?

[HighPeakFox]

I think we're very tired, and it is easy to over analyse, and in some cases, catastrophise. 

 

 

[BertFill]

9 hours ago, Kierzz said:

The back three on today weren't able to break the defensive lines with their passes like Vestergaard normally does which showed and put more pressure on Winks.

This.

Coady's a tidy player and a great leader, but he doesn't do those incisive passes like Vestergaard.

Add in Hamza, who for all his qualities has none of the quick creative nous of Ricardo, and we're missing nearly all of our attacking creativity from deep.